


Built To Live

by FabCreature



Category: LazyTown
Genre: Best Friends, Childhood, Father-Daughter Relationship, Friendship, Gen, Loneliness, Parenthood, Robots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 18:11:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 16,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13816665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FabCreature/pseuds/FabCreature
Summary: Robbie Rotten prefers to push away his soft side, and deny how lonely he actually is.Stephanie is open to new friends and will do everything she can to help.Rottenella laughs, has fun, feels, is curious, and loves.It's almost like she's human.---Rottenella is determined to be like the other kids and help Robbie to end his loneliness.





	1. Alive

Robbie sits back down on his comfy orange chair. He sighs, having accepted yet another defeat, failing to win the dancing duel. Even with the help of his ballerina doll, Rottenella, Stephanie managed to beat Robbie. She always does.

Robbie supposes he should get Rottenella back to her tiny doll-self. He’s just about to walk over to her, to take her back to the machine that gave her life, but he stops as he sees Rottenella looking around her. She’s investigating Robbie’s messy pile of boxes. She touches Robbie’s robot dog gently and she smiles.

Robbie is suddenly taken aback. He can’t get Rottenella back to normal - not after seeing that. Robbie Rotten might be a villain, but as Stephanie has stated in her diary, he is also a big softie. Seeing that Rottenella has a sense of curiosity has gotten Robbie to think. She’s curious, she investigates, she reacts. Almost like a human.

Robbie struggles, walking back and forth trying to desperately make up his mind. But he finally decides to follow his gut feeling.

Robbie groans. He can’t believe he’s letting his irrational feelings guide him, but he can’t help it.

As Robbie walks over to Rottenella, she freezes, supposing a doll-like pose. She doesn’t react when Robbie crouches down to look her in the eyes.

“Hey? Do you hear me?”

Rottenella turns her head slightly, to show Robbie she is listening. Her piercing silver eyes stare back at him, and it’s quite terrifying.

“Okay, well… How are you feeling?” Robbie asks, unsure what to say.

Rottenella tilts her head but says nothing. Robbie sighs - this is going to be harder than he thought.

“Can you understand me? Do you know what I’m saying?”

Rottenella hesitates but then nods slowly. Robbie sighs in relief - it won’t be too hard.

Robbie doubts for a moment before opening his mouth: “I’m thinking of letting you stay in this form. I’d let you roam around in my lair, as long as you stay out of trouble. Would you like that?”

Rottenella stays quiet for a long moment, and Robbie starts thinking she’s broken, but she finally lets a tiny grin spread across her lips and she nods.

Robbie smiles: “Okay, great!” But he then realizes he didn’t think this through, and now he has no idea what to do. Think before you act, Robbie. Think before you act.

Robbie starts walking back to the machine that lead him to this situation and he notices Rottenella is walking behind him. Robbie doesn’t pay attention and he continues as normal, moving the machine to the side with great difficulty.

Rottenella still follows him like a duckling, and Robbie starts feeling slightly uncomfortable. He doesn’t like children, and he supposes Rottenella is technically a child. But after all, Robbie is the one at fault right now, so he has to manage.

“So…” Robbie mumbles, turning back to Rottenella. “You can’t speak, huh?”

Rottenella shakes her head. 

“Alright… You know what, I think I might have something over here…”

Robbie runs over to his big, purple trunk. It’s full of stuff, including books - Robbie doesn’t read, but he still owns a lot of them. He throws all the scarves and tools around the place to find the book he probably has. Probably. Robbie isn’t organized and he’s also very good at losing things, so it might just be the book is no longer anywhere in the lair.

Fortunately though, Robbie finds the book; Sign Language 101. He should be able to learn sign language with the help of the book, and simultaneously, he’ll teach Rottenella. Their communication should become a lot easier, and it’s not like he has much to do anyway. Of course, he’d like to get rid of Sportacus, but it hasn’t been working that well lately, has it?


	2. Who are these people?

Rottenella looks through the periscope to see the outside world. The only time she’s visited the world outside of Robbie’s lair was when she competed against Stephanie in the dancing duel. Now she has spent a good while underground with Robbie. They’ve been learning sign language together, and Rottenella has watched TV and read books - only illustrated ones, for she can’t read. As a doll, you really don’t get to learn much about things like these.

Rottenella knocks on the glass of Robbie’s automatic wardrobe, and Robbie turns away from his sewing machine. He gives Rottenella his attention, and she signs: “Who are the kids on the playground?”

Robbie groans: “Don’t worry about them. They’re just a bunch of annoying, noisy kids. They never let me have a rest, and they’re always playing something loud.”

Rottenella nods, looking back into the periscope to see the kids playing.

Rottenella is fascinated by the kids. They seem really happy. They’re laughing, playing on the swings, and going down the slide. One of the kids is sitting on the grass, writing something in a book. The book is pink, and the kid has pink hair and a pink dress and pink sneakers… She’s like an explosion of pink.

Suddenly, a man dressed in blue jumps over to the kids and all of the kids greet him cheerfully. He looks very energetic, and his smile is the widest Rottenella has ever seen.

Rottenella knocks on the glass again, and Robbie once again turns to her, giving her his full attention.

“Who’s the man with the funny moustache?” Rottenella signs, smiling as she mentions the moustache.

Robbie shakes his head with a sigh: “Sportadoof. I’m trying to get him out of town. He’s not as loud as the kids, but definitely equally, if not more annoying. He’s always talking about being healthy; eating disgusting fruits and vegetables, playing horrible sports. He’s absolutely unbelievable.”

Rottenella’s smile falls as she listens to Robbie’s description of “Sportadoof”. Seems like Robbie really doesn’t like him. She looks back into the periscope, noticing the kids are gone. She turns the periscope until she sees the kids playing soccer with the moustached man in the sports park. They look like they’re having fun.

Rottenella shrugs and walks off of the platform, going back to reading comic books - or more looking at the pictures. She still finds it fun and interesting, even though she doesn’t know what any of the characters are saying. She tries her best to read the expressions of the characters. Human emotions are quite facsinating

Rottenella is just about to get to the fluffy, orange chair when the key on her back stops spinning, and she stops on the spot. She falls asleep standing up, and Robbie sighs with a faint smile. He walks over to Rottenella to wind her up again. It’s a mundane thing, happening several times a day, and Robbie has gotten used to it.

Once Rottenella is awake again, Robbie gets back to his sewing machine but doesn’t sit back down. “You had quite perfect timing, my little dancing queen…”

Rottenella gets confused and skips over to Robbie.

“You see, I have just finished my little gift for you,” Robbie says with a grin, holding up a purple dress with puffed sleeves, and a bow on the waist.

Rottenella gasps at the sight of the dress and jumps at Robbie to hug him. He shrieks at the surprising hug, but soon after smiles and hugs back, petting Rottenella’s hair gently.

Rottenella tries the dress on, and it fits perfectly. She’s very happy with the new, more casual dress, and thanks Robbie again several times. Robbie won’t admit it but seeing Rottenella so happy really warms his heart.


	3. Spirit of a villain

Rottenella sighs out of boredom, sitting on the big, fluffy chair and hugging her legs. She watches TV, though she doesn’t like the program that’s on right now. It’s just a bunch of people fighting and crying over nothing, or if there is a reason behind all of the drama, it’s a really dumb reason. Humans are dumb.

Rottenella doesn’t like that sort of shows. She prefers ones where there’s a lot of exciting things happening - real life happens to be very boring in her case.

Rottenella has been in the lair for days and days, and even though she likes being somewhat alive, it gets really boring. She has no one to talk to, except Robbie, and all she can do is watch TV and read comic books.

Oh, and of course she watches the town through the periscope, but sometimes it can make her feel even worse, knowing she can’t go up there herself.

Rottenella leans on the armrest to see behind the TV. Robbie’s cooking something. Rottenella is sort of sad she can’t eat, but there are a lot of things she can’t do, and eating is probably the least of her problems.

Rottenella walks over to the kitchen counter, going to stand next to Robbie silently. Robbie looks over at her with surprise.

“Hello there, my little dancing queen,” he greets simply, but lovingly. Rottenella nods at him and looks at the kettle and all of the ingredients on the table.

Robbie very rarely cooks. He usually just eats fast food, or sugary pastries - he probably isn’t cooking anything healthy now either.

Rottenella notices a bottle of some liquid on the table. She has seen it on TV - but she doesn’t remember it because she would really pay attention to a cooking show, no, she remembers it because a couple of people on TV used that liquid to blow something up. Well, not really blow up, just make a huge, scary fountain out of normal cooking ingredients.

Rottenella is bored. She has gotten an opportunity to entertain herself. She’s not going to let that opportunity go.

She walks away, not saying, well, signing, a word. She goes to the big pile of stuff to get some paper and a pair of scissors.

One morning, she saw on a kids’ show people making paper spiders, and she has several times seen Robbie freaking out over a tiny spider - she has taken control a couple of times as well, killing the spider for Robbie. She would take the spider outside and let it live, but going outside at all isn’t an option for her.

Rottenella quickly crafts a spider. It doesn’t look real at all, but it looks quite threatening - or at least she imagines it’d be threatening to Robbie. To Rottenella herself, it’s kind of cute.

Rottenella walks back to Robbie, with the paper spider behind her back. She looks at the cooking for a moment longer, before swiftly placing the spider on Robbie’s shoulder.

Robbie’s scream is a signal for Rottenella to go, pouring a little bit of the semi-explosive liquid into the kettle. Soon, the cooking erupts, making a huge fountain. Some small bits of it splatter onto Rottenella, but she keeps staring at the flying goo.

This is the most exciting thing that has happened in her life - though Rottenella knows it would be quite a small thing for someone else. Well, it’d still be big, but it wouldn’t be this special if Rottenella wouldn’t be spending her whole life in the lair, not being able to do much.

Once Robbie realizes the spider was fake and shakes off his shock, he quickly runs back over to the kitchen counter and puts a lid on the kettle. He looks over to Rottenella confusedly with a terrified expression, but Rottenella only laughs, standing tall and proud of the prank.

Robbie stares at Rottenella for a moment longer, then sighing and shaking his head. “I’d like to say you got that from someone else, but who do I have to blame…”

Rottenella giggles silently, and Robbie can’t help but smile as well - he’s raising a great villain.


	4. Friends

Rottenella once again looks at the town through the periscope. The five kids Rottenella has seen before are walking around and talking. She’s grown really curious of the group of friends, and sometimes wishes she could go and talk to them.

She’d really like to go outside in general. She wants to know what the sky looks like when you look straight up, she wants to know what it’s like to play on the swing, she wants to know what it’s like being up in a tree - she wants to know what it’s like to be like the other kids.

Rottenella turns to look at Robbie. He’s on the orange chair, fast asleep. Rottenella hasn’t seen him sleeping that much, but she has seen him tired a lot. He keeps complaining about the kids being loud - he probably wouldn’t like it if Rottenella went to play with the kids.

Rottenella thinks for a moment, pursing her lips together. Robbie probably wouldn’t like the idea of Rottenella playing with the other kids… but he doesn’t have to know. Rottenella nods to herself. She heads towards the lair’s exit quietly and goes to explore the town.

Rottenella squints her eyes at the sudden light, as she opens the hatch to the outside world. Once she gets used to the brightness, she looks around herself, only to see dark blue pipes, and further away a lot of grass and emptiness.

Rottenella turns to find a big wall with a door on it. She runs to it but then hesitates. She thinks of all the possibilities of what could be behind that door - all of them feel positive to her.

Rottenella opens the door. She comes out from behind the huge billboard and sees dozens of yellow houses in the distance. Rottenella smiles, recognizing the houses as the background of all the situations she has seen through the periscope. The town seems like a friendly place - Rottenella decides to go there.

She walks towards the town slowly, looking around herself with fascination. The sky looks a lot more blue outside of the lair, and everything feels much more real. Rottenella can’t wait to really experience everything.

_____

The kids hang out in the treehouse, talking about their latest crazy adventure. Trixie looks out of the little window and is surprised to see a girl with black hair and a purple dress. She walks among the trees, looking around confusedly.

“Hey, guys! Isn’t that… Rottenella?”

Trixie’s friends all exclaim the surprised “Rottenella?” and gather up by the window to see the girl.

“I think it’s her,” Stephanie says with her eyes wide.

Stingy nods and silently states: “I like her dress.”

“She looks like she might be lost,” Pixel claims with a frown.

“She looks lonely,” Ziggy mumbles.

The others nod, continuing to watch her every movement.

Stephanie hesitates at first, but then speaks up: “Should we go and ask her if she wants to play with us?”

All of her friends respond positively, deciding to get down from the treehouse to meet Rottenella. They’re all very curious to meet her for real.

Rottenella is startled when five kids run towards her as a group. She flinches and stares at them for a while, not sure what to do.

“Hi! I’m Stephanie,” the kid with pink hair introduces herself with a smile, “You danced really well at the duel.” She offers her hand to Rottenella for a handshake. Rottenella stares at the hand for a moment, and then offers her own hand in response - only the wrong one. Stephanie still takes her hand and shakes it confidently.

The smallest one of the kids, the one with the lollipop, starts jumping up and down excitedly. “I’m Ziggy! And this is Pixel,” the boy introduced as Pixel waves awkwardly, and Rottenella waves back with only a tiny hand movement, “and this here is Trixie…” Trixie nods at Rottenella, and she nods back hesitantly.

“And I’m Prince Stingy!” the kid with a bowtie exclaims, rolling his R and looking up dramatically. Rottenella laughs slightly without making a sound.

The kids smile at her, but nothing else happens. Rottenella can’t tell if this is normal behaviour or if someone’s supposed to say something.

The girl with pink hair, Stephanie, finally speaks up, breaking the silence: “Do you want to be our friend?”

Rottenella stops for a moment - friend.

The word is still strange to her, for Robbie couldn’t really explain it that well. Maybe he’s never had a friend. Would he like to have a friend? How would he feel about Rottenella having a friend? Is friend a positive thing?

It sounds very positive, based on the way Stephanie smiled with glittering eyes when she said the word, and how her voice got higher and more bubbly when the word escaped her mouth. Friend - it sounds nice.

Rottenella nods with a faint smile, and the others smile back at her.

“That’s great!” Ziggy exclaims and waves his hands around. Rottenella finds it adorable, though a little confusing, how excited Ziggy gets and how he moves around so much.

“We should go play something,” Trixie suggests, and all of the other kids agree.

They all start running towards the town center, and Ziggy encourages Rottenella to follow them. She does, but is a lot slower than the other kids, and they have to wait for her a little. Rottenella feels ashamed.

The kids lead Rottenella to the sports park, and Rottenella stares confusedly at the sports equipment around them. She has seen the kids play with some of them, but she didn’t realize there’d be this many different things to play with.

Stephanie turns to Rottenella with a wide smile. “Rottenella… Can we call you Ella?”

Rottenella stops on the spot. A nickname? She’s very confused by it, but… she likes it. It’s a lot shorter than Rottenella, and it sounds quite affectionate. Rottenella nods and Stephanie sighs in relief - the long pause probably made her nervous.

“So, Ella, what do you want to play?” Stephanie asks, and Ella freezes.

She raises her hands to start signing, but then lowers them back down, then raising them again, and repeating the process. She hesitates for a long time, but she finally realizes that it’s the only way she might have even a chance of the other kids understanding her.

“I’m mute,” Ella signs.

Stephanie, Trixie, Stingy, and Ziggy stare at her with furrowed brows and open mouths, but Pixel smiles.

“Don’t worry about that. I know sign language,” Pixel both signs and speaks at the same time. He turns to his friends and explains: “Guys, she’s mute. She can’t speak.”

The kids let out a long “o” sound in unison and nod. Ella smiles shyly and sighs in relief, thanking anything possible to thank for Pixel knowing sign language.

Ella gets startled again, when suddenly a man dressed in blue jumps over to the group, and the kids exclaim: “Sportacus!”

Ella is confused for a second. Wasn’t he called Sportadoof, not Sportacus? Ella doesn’t get any time to think, though, because Ziggy starts introducing them.

“Sportacus! This is Ella - she’s our new friend.” Sportacus smiles at Ella and shakes her hand - this time she doesn’t hesitate that much.

“Nice to meet you, Ella!” Sportacus greets cheerfully with a big grin. Ella looks over to the other kids for help, and Stingy steps in: “She’s mute.”

Sportacus nods, still smiling. He lets go of Ella’s hand and signs to her: “How are you?”

Ella smiles and responds: “I’m good.”

“Great! I only know a little bit of sign language.”

Ella nods but doesn’t sign anymore. Sportacus nods at her and doesn’t question her ending the conversation so suddenly - Ella appreciates that.

“Sportacus, do you want to play with us?” Ziggy asks enthusiastically. “Of course!”

Sportacus turns back to Rottenella: “Maybe we should let Ella decide what to play.”

Rottenella frowns a little and signs: “I don’t know any of the games.”

“She doesn’t know the games,” Pixel translates.

Stephanie smiles: “Don’t worry, we’ll teach you!” She runs over to a soccer ball, figuring it’s the simplest game to learn.

“Here, I’ll be the goalie. Basically, all you need to do is try to get the ball in the goal, but you aren’t allowed to touch the ball with your hands. And I’m supposed to stop you from getting the goal. Got it?”

Ella nods hesitantly, and suddenly everyone runs off to spread around the sports field, and Stephanie kicks the ball over to Stingy.

Stingy does a little trick with the ball, smiling smugly, and then passes it to Pixel. Pixel passes it to Trixie modestly, and Trixie kicks it powerfully to Ziggy. Ziggy is smiling wide as he gets the ball, and Rottenella recognizes the smile - she has seen it several times when watching the kids play, through the periscope.

Ziggy kicks the ball to Sportacus, who skillfully passes it to Ella. Unsure what to do, Ella tries kicking the ball to Stephanie, but it ends up rolling out of the field. Ella grimaces at the ball going off in the wrong direction, but Stephanie smiles at her as she runs after the ball, so they can all try again.

Rottenella isn’t good at soccer. Not at all. The ball very rarely goes where she wants it to go, she isn’t fast enough to run after the ball, and occasionally her movements can be so stiff that she even falls over.

But she still enjoys the experience. She finds herself having fun in the game, and everyone around her is really nice to her. The other kids congratulate Ella every time she does something successfully, and Sportacus encourages her continuously, telling her she’s doing a good job and getting better at it all the time. It makes Ella smile.

Rottenella is watching the others kick the ball around for a while when suddenly she loses all consciousness, and her upper body goes completely limp. Ziggy notices quickly.

“Ella? What happened to Ella?”

The others turn to Ziggy who’s running over to Rottenella, and they notice she has… fallen asleep? Fainted? Blacked out? They don’t really know, but she’s standing up, and everyone finds it very strange.

“I guess she died,” Stingy states calmly, and Stephanie slaps him on the shoulder.

“Ella? Ella, are you alright? Can you hear me?” Sportacus tries to talk to her, shaking her by her shoulders gently.

Pixel hums with a sound of confusion and interest in his voice: “That’s weird. It’s like your sugar meltdowns, except that she… well, she did nothing, and she’s stood up.”

They all try to wake her up, not taking notice of the huge key on her back, which you would usually find from a music box.

Suddenly, something even stranger happens; they see Robbie Rotten running. He’s running around town, looking around himself. He glances at Sportacus and the kids, continuing running, but then turns back and gasps.

“Rottenella! Rottenella, there you are!” he exclaims, running to the girl. He stops for a moment, huffing and puffing, trying to desperately catch his breath.

“Robbie? Are you okay?” Sportacus asks, mildly concerned at the sudden running.

“I’m always okay!” Robbie responds, picking Rottenella up and walking away, carrying the ballerina carelessly like a potato sack.

Sportacus and the kids are left at the sports park, puzzled and confused by the scene. They all look at each other with wide eyes before shrugging and continuing with their day, though all of them wondering in their heads what just happened?

_____

“Why did you run off like that?” are the first words Rottenella hears once she’s woken up again. Robbie doesn’t really look angry, but he looks confused.

“I wanted to go outside,” Rottenella replies simply.

Robbie scoffs and rolls his eyes, while Rottenella goes back to her comic books to look at the pictures.

“But why would you want to go outside? It’s so bright and noisy up there.”

Rottenella thinks for a moment, and then signs back: “It seemed interesting and I wanted to play with the other kids.”

“Play with the other kids? You played with the other kids?”

Rottenella nods with a big smile on her face: “Yes. The one with the pink hair taught me to play a game. The guy with the funny moustache was there too.”

Robbie watches Rottenella’s signing carefully and isn’t sure if he should laugh or cry.

“There was a goal and a ball, and then you had to kick the ball around to get it into the goal. It was strange, but fun too.”

Rottenella stops signing as she notices the expression on Robbie’s face. She doesn’t know what it represents, but it seems upset enough to make Rottenella stop.

“Do you not like the ball game?” Rottenella asks with a frown, and Robbie shakes his head.

“I hate the ball game. I hate all of the games they play. It’s pointless and tiring. Why would someone make themselves tired voluntarily?”

Rottenella frowns. Maybe she shouldn’t play the ball game.

Robbie notices her frown and gets very torn between how he feels about sports and how he feels about Rottenella. He wants her to be happy. He can’t even remember when was the last time he had someone to care about like this, and that makes Rottenella’s happiness mean so much more to him.

“But I-I guess people do have their own opinions. Y-you can of course play if you like it. I can’t stop you anyway,” Robbie mumbles, and Rottenella regains her smile.

Robbie smiles warmly at Rottenella’s joy. “Yeah, I guess the only really bad thing about it is how playing the games is so noisy. I can never have a moment of peace when they’re playing.”

Rottenella chuckles softly and signs: “But I’m not making any sound at all.”

Robbie laughs: “Yes. I guess that could be why I like you so much more than the other kids.”


	5. Sleepover

It doesn’t take long for Rottenella to visit the town the second time. It’s only the day after the first time, and she’s again walking along the streets of Lazy Town. She’s wearing an outfit made by Robbie again, but it’s a different one. This time she has a deep purple mini skirt with a lavender collar shirt, and along with them, over-the-knee-high socks, and she absolutely loves it. Robbie is a great tailor.

“Ella!” the kids exclaim as they see her walking down the streets of Lazy Town. She runs over to them, and the kids greet her with big smiles.

“Do you wanna come and play with us? We’d love to have you join us!” Ella nods eagerly, following the others to go and play something.

The kids teach Ella to skip rope. She thinks it’s fun, and she’s really good at it as well, even though her clockwork engines get worked up from the constant jumping. She can hear the springs clanging on each other and she can feel the cogs shifting a little bit, but it seems to be fine, so she continues having fun with her friends.

The other kids start getting tired, so they stop playing. The sun is also starting to get closer to the horizon, and Rottenella wonders if that means they should go home - it does in all of the movies she has seen.

The other kids whisper something, and Rottenella stares at them confusedly.

Stephanie and Stingy push Trixie closer to Ella, and she asks carefully: “You know, we’re all going to Stephanie’s for a sleepover, and we were thinking, you know, if you’d like to come too?”

Ella smiles brightly and nods. She signs that she will go home and ask Robbie for permission, which Pixel translates to the other kids, and they all nod.

Ella starts skipping over to the directions of the lair, still feeling all bouncy after the rope skipping.

_____

“A sleepover?”

Rottenella nods: “All the other kids are going there too. And they specifically asked me to join.”

Robbie sighs. He looks at Rottenella and her hopeful eyes. They suddenly seem so much bigger, rounder, and sparklier than usual. He takes a deep breath and smiles at the doll in front of him, nodding.

“Alright then,” Robbie says with a gentle smile, “you can go to the sleepover. I hope you’ll have fun.”

A big grin spreads across Rottenella’s lips, and if she could make noises, she would most assuredly be squealing right now. She hugs Robbie, making him flinch a little, but he soon returns the hug.

“You know, I believe a quite crucial part of a sleepover,” Robbie mumbles, walking over to his sewing machine, “is pyjamas. So how about I make you something to wear for the night?”

Robbie makes Rottenella a loose, purple, button-up with puffed sleeves and comfy trousers that reach her knees. He also quickly whips up some magenta wool socks for her, and she puts them all in a bag Robbie found in a pile of stuff in the lair. Robbie is incredibly quick at making clothes, and Rottenella doesn’t know how he does it, but she accepts it and moves on.

Robbie also braids Rottenella’s hair in two braids before she goes.

Robbie is still a little worried, so he gives her his last words of advice: “Just be careful, okay? Avoid liquids. If you don’t understand something, just nod. You’ll get through a lot of stuff like that.” Robbie pets Rottenella’s hair and mutters under his breath: “That’s how I’ve gotten through most of life…”

“Just be careful and try not to break yourself. Promise me you’ll come back home in one piece?” Rottenella nods with a smile and kisses Robbie on the cheek before leaving the lair.

_____

Rottenella goes to the town center, realizing she has no idea where Stephanie lives. Luckily, Pixel comes up to her quickly after she arrives, and he leads her to one of the yellow houses.

Once inside, Ella can hear all the other kids talking and giggling upstairs. Soon enough, loud footsteps are heard coming down the stairs, and Stephanie appears.

“Hey, Ella! Great you made it. Everyone else is already upstairs,” Stephanie blabbers on, and Ella smiles at her. She’s really nice.

Suddenly, a bald man wearing a bright yellow suit appears in the living room. “Oh, Ella, meet Milford, my uncle - he’s the mayor of the town. Uncle Milford, this is Ella - she’s our new friend.”

Milford shakes Ella’s hand and smiles at her with a genuine look. “Hello, Ella. It is very nice to meet you.”

There’s a short moment of silence, and Ella starts getting nervous. She looks over to Stephanie, and she finally realizes to say something.

“Oh, and she’s mute, so she can’t talk.”

“Oh, alright, I’m sorry, that got a bit awkward,” Milford apologizes - though Ella doesn’t know what for - and he seems really nice. He gives Ella a warm welcome, and Pixel and Stephanie take her upstairs where the others are waiting.

Pixel and Stephanie go in first, and Ella follows them to Stephanie’s room. All of the pink furniture has been pushed to the side of the room, and mattresses have been laid out on the floor.

As Ella steps into the room, Stingy is shouting at Ziggy, telling him to get off his mattress, while Trixie is hiding Ziggy’s teddy bear. She notices Ella watching and freezes right there. Rottenella though loves a good prank, so she grins at Trixie and zips her lips.

Stephanie tells Stingy to stop shouting at Ziggy and she then walks back over to Ella.

“Ella, we were just about to change into our pyjamas.” Ella nods. “I just thought that, do you maybe wanna change in the bathroom? Just in case you wanted some privacy.”

Rottenella isn’t sure how to respond, so she just nods, and Stephanie shows her the bathroom. Ella takes her bag with her and goes there to change.

Rottenella sighs as she closes the door behind her and turns the lock. She looks down at the tiled floor and wonders why such a hidden and unused room would have the shiniest floor.

Rottenella flinches as she looks up and sees someone before her. After a moment of confusion, she realizes it’s Rottenella herself. She’s looking into a mirror.

The lair does have mirrors. There’s a small one that Robbie uses to do his makeup, but Rottenella never sees the reflecting side of it. And there’s also a big one, but it’s covered with dust - most of the lair is.

Previously, Rottenella had known roughly what she looks like, but now is the first time she gets a good look. It’s strange. Suddenly she’s not just her body, thoughts, and feelings - she has a face too.

Rottenella touches her braided, ebony black hair carefully. The way her hair reacts to the touch and moves as Rottenella’s hand moves is strange to her. But it’s nice.

Rottenella slowly gets closer to the mirror. She stares at her small, red lips and her round, red cheeks. They’re a lot more red than the other kids’. Now Rottenella realizes that she really looks like what she is - a doll.

Finally, Rottenella notices her eyes. She believes they might be the strangest and most fascinating thing about her. She has long, dark lashes, and quite narrow eyes. Her eyes are icy grey. Maybe a bit more silver. Rottenella stares into her own soul through the mirror and deems it terrifying. She’s definitely going to use it on others too.

Ella finally changes into her pyjamas, having a bit of difficulty with the shirt, thanks to the key on her back. She goes back to Stephanie’s room where everyone is already in their pyjamas, waiting for her.

Right away as Ella comes back, Stephanie jumps up from her bed. “Should we go and have our evening snack?” she asks, and everyone nods.

The kids start heading downstairs, and confusedly, Ella follows.

They go to the kitchen, and Stephanie gets bowls of fruits and vegetables from the fridge. Ella recognizes that it’s all fruits and vegetables, but she can’t name any of them. Robbie never eats them. He says they’re disgusting and being healthy is just a bunch of nonsense. Rottenella obediently believes him - who else does she have to believe?

All of the kids, except for Ella, happily eat the food, and Stingy tries to hoard all of the long yellow ones everybody seems to be calling “banananananas”… Ella thinks it’s a difficult word. But the other kids tell him to share, and after a long fight, he obeys.

Ella notices that the other kids are sort of staring at her, or at least constantly glancing at her confusedly.

Stephanie finally asks: “Ella, aren’t you going to eat something? The sportscandy is really good, it’s fresh and healthy.”

Ella hesitates when she signs that she can’t eat, and Pixel translates that. Everyone looks confused for a moment, and then Stephanie speaks up again: “Do you have a lot of allergies?”

Rottenella doesn’t know what the word “algeries” means - she also doesn’t know how to spell it. But she follows Robbie’s instructions and nods slowly.

“Oh... well, are you sure you won’t get hungry? We should have something…” Ella shakes her head, silencing Stephanie.

“Okay then… But you should tell us your allergies for next time. We can work around them! You know, Sportacus can’t eat processed sugar at all. If he eats just one small bite, he’ll get a sugar meltdown! It’s kind of like what happened to you when we were playing soccer.”

Suddenly, by those sentences, a conversation is sparked. Ella watches confusedly at how the other kids start getting excited, talking about their soccer game and lots of crazy adventures Ella hasn’t even heard of. Robbie seems to be involved in a lot of the stories, but almost always in a disguise.

Rottenella can’t really tell how the other kids feel about Robbie. They seem to be annoyed with him, and according to what they say, he’s done a lot of mean things to them, but they also refer to him quite lovingly, saying things like “that’s our Robbie!” and all the sorts. Rottenella finds it very confusing.

“So, Ella, what is Robbie to you? Father, uncle, brother..?” Stingy asks suddenly, surprising Ella. She thinks for a moment before signing to Pixel so he can say it to the other kids.

“I don’t know. All I know is that he takes care of me.”

Rottenella is perfectly aware that she’s still technically a doll, so she and Robbie aren’t related, but she’s still unsure of what Robbie is to her. He is her caretaker, teacher, role model, friend, and in a way, the one who gave her life as well. Rottenella isn’t sure what to make out of that.

The other kids don’t pester her any longer and they finish up their snack, putting the dishes in the sink. Stingy goes first as they start heading back upstairs, but Ziggy tugs the hem of Ella’s shirt, stopping her on her way.

“Ella, what’s that key on your back?” he asks innocently, receiving a gentle, scolding slap on the shoulder from Stephanie. Rottenella stares at him with pursed lips for a moment and then decides to explain.

“It’s so that I wouldn’t pass out like I did on the sports field the other day. You need to wind it up every now and then.” The other kids nod slowly as Pixel explains what Ella signed, and they now seem even more confused.

“Well, uh, should we wind it up now maybe?” Stephanie asks unsurely, and Ella nods. The key is quite stiff and hard to spin, but all of the kids help, and Rottenella feels just a little more energetic than before.

“Shall we go and brush our teeth then?” All of the kids nod at Stingy suggestion, and they rush upstairs.

The other kids get their toothbrushes and toothpaste out of their bags, and Stephanie stares at Ella with furrowed eyebrows. She’s just sitting there, looking at the other kids, wondering what brushing your teeth really even means.

“Aren’t you going to brush your teeth, Ella? Sportacus says that it’s really important.” Rottenella can’t answer the question, but luckily Stephanie speaks up again: “Or did you brush your teeth already when you changed in the bathroom?”

Rottenella nods. She didn’t completely understand the question, but she follows Robbie’s advice, and it seems to fit the situation.

Stephanie smiles: “Okay then. Are you fine waiting here by yourself for us?” Ella nods once again.

Stephanie is being so considerate, it makes Rottenella smile.

Stephanie smiles at Ella as well before going to brush her teeth in the bathroom with the other kids. “Remember, guys! Twenty times time!”

Moments later, Rottenella is left alone in Stephanie’s room. Suddenly, after all of the chatting and blabbering and giggling, it’s completely silent. Rottenella looks around the room, but there isn’t much to look at. Only on Stephanie’s bedside table, she has a ballerina doll and a framed group photo.

Rottenella takes a closer look at the photo. All of the kids are posing with Sportacus, the mayor, and a woman with blue hair. They seem very happy. In the background, Rottenella can see Robbie sneaking around. Seems to be he wasn’t supposed to be in the picture.

Rottenella puts the photo back, and looks around the room, but deems there’s nothing more to look at.

She peeks into the hallway - it’s completely empty. She steps out of the room hesitantly and heads towards the bathroom door. She can hear the kids talking in there, while also brushing their teeth.

“Don’t you think it’s kinda weird how Ella just came out of nowhere?”

Rottenella stops on her way as she hears them - talking about her. She quietly walks up to the door, then sliding down against the wall to sit on the floor.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“But you know what I find even stranger? Robbie taking care of her.”

Rottenella can hear the other kids giving agreeing responses. She looks down at her clothes, made by Robbie, and touches her hair, braided by Robbie. Rottenella frowns a little.

“I mean, he really seems to love calling himself a villain and he wants to seem all evil, but now… he’s almost like a father to Ella!”

“I thought he didn’t even like children!”

“Though, Ella seems older than any of us. Maybe he just doesn’t like little kids.”

“Or maybe he just doesn’t like us.”

Rottenella keeps listening to the kids talking, and she’s not sure how to feel. She sighs, tugging at her own clothes. On the other hand, the other kids have known Robbie for much longer than she has. But on the other hand, they don’t know him like Rottenella does.

They haven’t been living in his lair. They haven’t had normal conversations with him. They haven’t seen him doing normal everyday things. They haven’t been taught by him, looked after by him. They don’t really know him.

“But guys, Robbie is a big softy. I wouldn’t be too surprised if he saw her and decided to take care of her because no one else would.”

“I guess so…”

“But don’t you still think it’s kinda strange? I mean, it’s almost like she’s a robot or something.”

“What if Robbie made a robot to spy on us?”

“Hey, don’t say that! Ella’s way too nice to be a spy.”

“But Robbie has made a robot dog in the past. Who says he couldn’t make a robot girl?”

“Guys, let’s just stop talking, okay? It’s not nice to talk about people behind their backs, and you’re all being ridiculous.”

Rottenella frowns, hearing what the kids think of her. She can’t really tell what she’s feeling. Could it be anger? No, not really, she doesn’t think so. Sadness? Could be - based on what she has heard, it sounds pretty fitting. Fear? Maybe. Rottenella doesn’t really understand what the emotion means. But for sure, she’s confused. Rottenella is confused quite often.

Rottenella suddenly feels a little ill. As if that was possible for a doll.

After a moment longer of waiting, Ella hears someone opening the door, and she rushes back into Stephanie’s room. She just about makes it without the other kids being too suspicious of her.

Milford peeks through Stephanie’s bedroom door, smiling at the kids: “Alright children, it’s almost 8:08, you should get to bed.”

They all obey, though Trixie does so a bit reluctantly. Stephanie climbs into her bed, while the other kids lie on mattresses on the floor, wrapping their blankets around themselves. Stingy and Pixel sleep next to each other, Trixie sleeps closest to the door, and meanwhile Ziggy is in the middle of the room.

“Ella. Come over here,” Stephanie beckons, gesturing to the mattress next to her bed. “You can sleep here.” Ella does as told and signs Stephanie a quick thank you, even though she knows Stephanie can’t understand her.

“Good night, children!”

“Good night, uncle Milford!”

“Good night, Mr Mayor!”

Milford turns out the lights and closes the door slowly. Suddenly it’s dark and the only thing to be heard is Milford’s footsteps in the hallway. They get quieter and quieter, and eventually, Ella can’t hear them at all.

The other kids fall asleep quickly, but Rottenella can’t sleep at all - not while the key on her back is still spinning. She’ll just have to wait until it stops spinning and she passes out again.

Rottenella sits on the floor, listening to the complete silence. The moonlight shines through the window, making Rottenella’s pale skin glow in the darkness. She sighs, letting her mind wander.

“Ella?” Stephanie whispers, making Ella jump. She turns to Stephanie who’s staring at her, lying in bed, but still awake.

Stephanie furrows her brows a little as she changes her position on the bed. She thinks for a moment before whispering again.

“Are you a robot?” Stephanie puts a little bit of a giggle into her speech, so she seems like she could be joking, but Ella can tell behind it she’s completely serious.

Rottenella’s clockwork engines suddenly seem to be moving with more struggle. Would being a robot be a good thing? Or is it really bad? Rottenella can’t tell.

Ella grabs the doll from Stephanie’s bedside table, hesitantly pointing at herself, and then the doll. Stephanie furrows her eyebrows.

“You’re… a doll?” Ella nods slowly. Stephanie nods back at her. She then chuckles lightly.

“Seems like Robbie can do lots of things, huh? I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew how to use magic.” Ella smiles, feeling her cogs starting to run normally again.

Stephanie doesn’t say anything else. She keeps staring at Ella, as she looks down at the floor. Stephanie opens her mouth to say something, but closes it again. She shakes her head to herself and sighs.

“You didn’t hear what we were talking about in the bathroom, did you?” Stephanie asks with a frown.

Ella throws her gaze back to Stephanie with wide eyes and then looks back down at the floor.

She hesitantly nods.

Stephanie looks at Ella apologetically. “You know, that might’ve sounded bad, but I swear, we really do like you. We really, really like you. It’s just that Robbie can sometimes be… well…”

Stephanie’s speech trails off, and Ella frowns at her and shakes her head. She takes the framed photo on Stephanie’s bedside table, pointing at Robbie in the picture. Once she has Stephanie’s full attention, she puts the photo back and tries her best to tell Stephanie what Robbie really is like.

Ella smiles sweetly, hugging herself tenderly. Stephanie stares at her with furrowed eyebrows.

“You’re saying he’s nice?”

Ella nods. A hint of a smile sneaks onto Stephanie’s lips and she nods back at Ella again.

“Alright then. I believe you.”

Ella lets a huge grin spread across her face and signs Stephanie a thank you. Stephanie doesn’t really understand, but she signs it right back at her and giggles.

“Good night, Ella.”

She doesn’t respond.


	6. Lonely

Rottenella frowns, staring at Robbie sitting on his orange chair. He suddenly seems so much lonelier and sadder. After hearing all those things the other kids said about Robbie, Rottenella can’t look at him the same way. Not because she thinks he would be evil - it’s because she feels sorry for him.

Rottenella taps Robbie on the shoulder and he turns his head to her quickly.

“What is it?”

Rottenella hesitates and then signs to him: “Are you lonely?”

Robbie furrows his brows in confusion. “Why are you asking?”

Rottenella doesn’t let the question go, and she firmly signs again: “Are you lonely?”

Robbie sighs, seeming like he doesn’t want to answer the question. He takes a deep breath and decides to just answer something.

“Well, no. I have you here, so of course I’m not alone.” Robbie lets out a lifeless chuckle, and Rottenella frowns at him.

“But are you lonely? There’s a difference between alone and lonely.”

Robbie sighs again, realizing Rottenella won’t give in. Rottenella stares at him expectantly, but Robbie refuses to really answer.

“Why are you asking me? What makes you think that?” Robbie seems annoyed, but Rottenella wants the truth.

“So you are lonely?”

Robbie groans, leaning his head back and rubbing his temples. He breathes in and out slowly, then glancing at Rottenella’s expectant face, staring back at him with those scary, piercing eyes.

“Ugh, alright, fine! I’m lonely! I have been for a very long time. But that’s alright. That’s good. I like it that way. I don’t need anyone. I don’t need any of their stupid games or parties. I don’t need their attention or their pity. I don’t need anyone! I’m fine!”

Rottenella blinks at Robbie, not so phased by his shouting. She frowns when Robbie hides his face in his hands and grumbles something to himself. His whole body moves along with his deep breaths as he shakes his head to himself. He might even be shaking.

Rottenella steps closer carefully. She waits for Robbie to do something, but he doesn’t, so she takes another step closer. She taps Robbie on the shoulder, and he throws his gaze up to Rottenella, and then jumps up from the chair, seeming surprised, even frightened.

Rottenella goes for it, wrapping her arms around Robbie’s waist and hugging him.

Robbie almost stops breathing at the surprise of the hug. He’s honestly terrified. Rottenella is holding him a lot gentler than usual, and it seems like she’s trying to be very, very careful, but at the same time, she’s holding him firmly, like it’s a determined hug. It’s like she’s being… protective.

It feels strange for Robbie to be protected by anyone, let alone a child. It feels strange, it feels wrong, it feels… comforting. Rottenella’s arms wrapped around his waist, her cheek pressed against his chest. It’s been a long, long while since anyone had cared about Robbie this way - at least so that Robbie would acknowledge it.

Rottenella holds on, refusing to let go of the hug, and Robbie doesn’t struggle against it. He finally sighs and caves in, answering the hug and wrapping his arms around Rottenella as well.

A little grin spreads on Rottenella’s lips, and she holds onto Robbie even tighter.


	7. Talent show

“A talent show?”

“Yes, Ziggy! Everyone can prepare different performances and show what kind of things they can do.”

“Wow, Sportacus, that’s so cool!”

“Hm, yes. What’s the prize?”

“There is no prize, Stingy. It’s all just for fun!”

Rottenella and Robbie heard Sportacus and the mayor putting up posters and talking. It was disturbing Robbie’s attempt at sleeping, so he sent Rottenella to investigate. Now she’s skipping over to the town center where she can see Sportacus talking to the kids, and they seem very excited. Ella starts getting curious.

“Ah! Hello, Ella! It’s very nice to see you again.”

Ella nods at Sportacus with a smile, and then asks Pixel: “What’s going on over here?”

“There’s gonna be a talent show in Lazy Town!”

Stephanie nods eagerly: “Yeah! We can all make our own performances and show off our skills. It’s going to be amazing!”

Suddenly, all of the kids start thinking about the things they could do for the talent show. They mutter to themselves, occasionally exclaiming any idea they like. Sportacus chuckles at them.

“Alright guys, I have to go now. I can’t wait to see what you come up with for the talent show!” And with that, Sportacus runs off, and the kids all wave at him.

“Hey, Ella!” Stephanie grabs Ella by the arm and gets a little further away from the other kids, dragging Ella behind her. She has a huge smile on your face, and Ella has no idea what it means.

“I was thinking that it would be fun if we could dance together at the talent show. Make up our own choreography and perform together! What do you think?”

Ella’s eyes widen as she hears Stephanie’s idea. She’s absolutely thrilled. Rottenella loves dancing, and she knows that Stephanie is a really good dancer. Dancing with her sounds like great fun!

Ella nods eagerly, making Stephanie giggle. “This is going to be great! We can plan it all by ourselves, and then we’ll have the costumes, and we can dance and show everyone what we can really do!” Stephanie claps her hands together excitedly.

“Can we meet tomorrow to start planning?”

Ella nods again with a huge grin on her face.

“Great! I’ll see you tomorrow!”

_____

“There’s going to be a talent show? Ugh, they always come up with something noisy to do…”

Rottenella nods: “Stephanie and I are going to have a dance performance there. It would make me really happy if you were there to watch us dance.”

Robbie furrows his brows and turns to look at Rottenella. “You’re going to dance there?”

Rottenella nods, keeping a straight face and looking into Robbie’s eyes. Robbie stares right back at her with his brows still furrowed. Rottenella can’t exactly read his expression, but she holds her head up high, really hoping Robbie would come to see the show.

It would mean the world to her if Robbie were to come and see her dancing with Stephanie. Robbie means the world to her. If it weren’t for him, Rottenella wouldn’t be alive. She wouldn’t be dancing at the talent show at all if it weren’t for Robbie.

But of course, Robbie does mean more than that to Rottenella. Robbie is the most important person in the world to her. Rottenella can’t really describe it in any other way. The only thing she can say is that she trusts him - she would trust him with her life.

Robbie sighs, his expression breaking into a smile.

“Of course I’ll come and watch you dance.” Robbie pets Rottenella’s hair, smiling at her.

Rottenella allows a grin spread across her lips as well, and Robbie lays a kiss on her forehead.

“Will you allow me to make the dancing costumes for you kids?” Robbie asks with a smile, and Rottenella nods eagerly, making Robbie laugh. He pats her on the head and sighs.

“My little dancing queen.”


	8. Teach you

Rottenella walks along the streets of Lazy Town, again wearing a new outfit by Robbie. This time, it’s a pink-ish purple skirt with suspenders, a thin, purple sweater, and matching tights. She’s quite happy having Robbie as her personal tailor.

Ella goes to knock on the door of Stephanie’s house and is greeted by the kindhearted smile of the mayor. “Ah, hello there, Ella! It’s nice to see you.”

Ella smiles at him and nods, hoping it’s good enough for an answer.

“Are you looking for the other children?” Milford asks, and Ella nods again eagerly.

“Well then, I believe they’re all at Pixel’s place doing their homework. It’s that tall, blue house with all of the fancy gadgets on the roof.” Milford lets out a friendly chuckle. Ella thanks him and starts walking towards the house.

Ella looks at the house, wondering what all of the different gadgets do. She walks to the front door cautiously, ringing the doorbell. A screen above the door turns on, and Ella sees Pixel through it. Pixel smiles and tells his friends that Rottenella is at the door. He presses a button to unlock the door and then tells Ella to come in.

Ella walks up the stairs into Pixel’s bedroom, where everyone is sitting around where-ever, reading, writing, and calculating.

“Hey, Ella!” Stephanie greets with a smile, followed by the others greeting Ella as well. Ella waves back at them, and they all get back to work. Ella furrows her brows in confusion, staring at everyone busy at work.

Ella walks to Pixel, sitting down next to him by the computer and starting to sign: “What are all of you doing?”

Pixel answers by signing as well, not wanting to disturb the other kids: “We’re doing our homework and studying. We have a big geography test coming up about Asia, so we need to name all of the countries and some of the most important rivers, lakes, and mountains.”

Rottenella nods slowly. She might just about understand. She’s glad she has watched so much TV, so she has a basic grasp of what school, homework, and tests are about.

Ella flinches when Ziggy runs over to her, holding a stack of papers. He smiles at her, handing the papers. “Ella! Since you’re not doing anything, can you check my writing homework for any mistakes?”

Rottenella’s eyes widen as she stares at the papers in Ziggy’s hands. She looks over to Pixel, then back to Ziggy. She hesitates, breathing heavily, but finally shakes her head.

“I can’t read,” she responds simply. When Pixel translates hesitantly, she receives a lot of strange looks from each one of the kids. She hears Stingy whisper a confused “You can’t read?” but she doesn’t respond to it.

Rottenella can once again feel her engines starting to get worked up. The other kids just continue staring at her, not getting anything said, even if they wanted to.

“That’s okay,” Stephanie says, almost shouting, breaking the silence. She gets up from her spot, walking closer to Ella with an encouraging smile. “We can teach you.”

“First you have to know the alphabet.”

Stingy hands Stephanie a piece of paper with lots of bright coloured letters on it. Rottenella recognizes them, but has no idea which letter is which. They’re all just scribbles to her.

“This is A, this is B, and C, D…” Stephanie points at the scribbles, saying what letters they are. Meanwhile, Pixel shows Ella the sign for each letter, and she tries her best copying him.

At the end of the day, Rottenella has learned to write her own name and simple words like car, sun, house, ball, and dress. Apparently, the kids had helped Ziggy read when he was little, so it wasn’t too much trouble teaching her.

“Do you wanna learn to write all of our names too?” Pixel asks with a smile, and Ella nods eagerly. The other kids look slightly confused.

“Shouldn’t you know how to write our names already? I mean you and Pixel talk all the time by signing stuff, so don’t you say our names, like, letter by letter? Isn’t that how it works?” Trixie asks confusedly. Ella and Pixel look at each other with little grins.

Pixel explains to the other kids: “Well, it’d really slow down the conversation if we’d sign your names letter by letter, especially with Stephanie and Sportacus, so we just refer to you guys as random words.”

The kids furrow their brows, and Pixel nods. “We call Stephanie ‘pink’, Sportacus ‘sport’, Stingy ‘bow tie’, Trixie is ‘pigtail’, and Ziggy is ‘small’.”

“What about Robbie?” Stephanie asks with a curious smile. “What do you call him?”

Pixel turns to look at Ella. It’s as if he’s asking if he can tell them. Ella blinks at him, and he then turns back to the other kids.

“Uh, we refer to Robbie as Ella’s dad. But you know, just ‘cause it’s a lot quicker than spelling his name, and that was just the first thing that came to mind.” Ella nods, looking down at the floor. There’s a moment of silence, and Rottenella really wishes someone would say at least something.

“I wanna learn sign language!” Ziggy suddenly exclaims excitedly, “It’s so cool! Can you teach me?”

“I wanna learn too!” Stephanie exclaims, with soon Trixie and Stingy wanting to learn as well.

“Can you teach us?” The kids look at Pixel and Ella pleadingly, and Pixel shrugs: “Sure, why not?”

Pixel teaches the kids to spell their own names in sign language and teaches them some simple words and sentences which will come in handy if the kids ever have to communicate with Ella when Pixel won’t be there to translate. Ella then helps him teach the kids whatever phrases and words they want.

“Ooh, what’s the sign for candy?” Ziggy asks, and Stephanie rolls her eyes. Pixel shows Ziggy how to sign the word, and Ziggy stares carefully, trying to do it himself. Ziggy’s attempt makes Ella laugh, so she moves closer to fix the position Ziggy’s hand is in.

“Oh, oh, what about dancing?” Stephanie asks jumping up and down in her seat. Ella shows the sign, and when Stephanie tries to copy her, Ella demonstrates slower. Stephanie corrects herself, and Ella then smiles and nods, giving Stephanie a thumbs up.

The lesson continues for the rest of the evening, until the kids have to go home. Stingy learns the sign for gold, and Trixie learns to sign “Bite me!”, while Pixel and Ella laugh at their failed attempts at sign language. But they are definitely eager to help and teach them. Pixel is a very friendly and kindhearted boy, and Ella feels it’s only fair that she helps the other kids after all that they have done for her.

Rottenella likes helping people. The simple gesture of picking up Stingy’s pen after he dropped it, or helping Robbie with making the clothes he makes for Rottenella, they all make her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Rottenella only wishes Robbie would accept the help Rottenella tries to give him so he wouldn’t have to be so lonely.


	9. Practice

Rottenella isn’t sure how she did it, but she managed to convince Robbie to let Stephanie come into the lair to practice the dance for the talent show. It’s handy too, for Robbie can take Stephanie’s measurements while she’s there already.

But what truly astonishes and maybe worries Rottenella, is that Sportacus is coming too. He’s helping her and Stephanie with the dance, and Robbie reluctantly agreed on letting him join the girls in the lair. Rottenella isn’t sure what’s going to happen, but she sure hopes this would be the beginning of Sportacus’s and Robbie’s friendship.

“Hey, Ella!” Stephanie has suddenly appeared in the lair, smiling bright at Ella. She runs over to the doll to hug her, and Sportacus follows close behind.

“This place is so cool! It must be pretty amazing to live here,” Stephanie remarks, looking around the lair in awe.

When Robbie hears all the commotion, he appears from his hiding place, looking at the visitors with a grumpy expression. He gives Stephanie a small nod and then stares at Sportacus for a while. Their eyes are locked together and Rottenella finds it unsettling.

“Sportaflop,” Robbie says simply without a change of expression.

Sportacus nods at Robbie with a genuine smile: “It’s nice to see you, Robbie.”

Robbie doesn’t respond. He gets his measuring tape and gets straight to work on measuring Stephanie.

Stephanie isn’t phased by Robbie’s grumpy mood. She smiles at Ella and then turns to talk to Robbie: “Have you thought about what our costumes are gonna be like?”

“Of course, I have,” Robbie responds, sounding rather irritated. He orders Stephanie to raise her arms so he can measure her waist.

“Well, what are they gonna be like?” Stephanie asks with enthusiasm, following Robbie’s instructions. She can barely stand still, and Robbie has to grab her shoulders to hold her still for a moment so she’ll calm down.

“They’re going to be dancing outfits,” Robbie answers with the same attitude as before.

Stephanie rolls her eyes, but smiles. She squints her eyes at Robbie and continues trying to get answers.

“Are they going to be identical or different to each other?”

“In between.”

“Colour?”

“Both are different colours.”

“What colour is mine going to be?”

“Orange, obviously.”

Stephanie furrows her brows.

“It’s going to be pink! What did you expect?” Robbie scoffs.

Stephanie giggles and lets Robbie be, not bothering him any longer.

Once Robbie has written all of Stephanie’s measurements down, he goes to sit in a corner and starts working on the costumes. Meanwhile, Rottenella, Stephanie, and Sportacus start working on the dance.

Ella and Stephanie show Sportacus their ideas and ask for critique, but Sportacus assures them that there’s nothing he could do better. Ella believes it’s quite obvious, thinking about the little bit of dancing Ella has seen Sportacus do, but she doesn’t say anything - as if she could.

Stephanie counts aloud as she and Ella start practising the dance. Stephanie’s bright pink hair flies all over the place as she dances quickly and energetically, while Ella moves slowly with precise movements. But their dance still flows together perfectly.

As Stephanie dips Ella, the doll gets a glance of Robbie hiding in the corner of the room. Rottenella notices that he isn’t busy at work like he said he would be. His eyes are glimmering as a faint smile spreads on his lips.

He’s watching Stephanie and Rottenella dance. The mechanical girl smiles, seeing Robbie’s foot tap on the ground silently to Stephanie’s counting, and suddenly she gets a new burst of motivation. She does her pirouettes twice as fast, jumps twice as far, and the music in her head is five times louder. Stephanie smiles wide when she notices the sudden motivation.

“Girls, that was amazing!” Sportacus exclaims as Stephanie and Ella do a little bow. The girls look at each other with tiny grins and giggle.

“We still have to practise that part at the end,” Stephanie says, receiving a nod from Ella.

The dancers flinch as Sportacus’s crystal starts beeping. They stare at the glow, and Sportacus smiles.

“You did great, but I gotta go now. Someone’s in trouble.” Sportacus does his signature move and runs off with the girls waving after him.

Rottenella glances at Robbie, finding that he’s fallen asleep at his sewing machine. Ella smiles at him.

“Do you wanna try again?” Stephanie asks, ready to start. Ella nods but holds her hand in front of her to tell Stephanie to wait.

Rottenella can’t sense whether it’s hot or cold, but according to the thermometer on the wall, it’s the same temperature as it always is when Robbie complains about it being cold.

Ella runs over to Robbie with an orange blanket and a pillow in hand. She pulls the chair Robbie’s sitting on a little further away from the table and puts the pillow under Robbie’s neck. She covers him with the blanket gently and then runs back to Stephanie.

Ella gets into position to start practising, but Stephanie keeps watching after Robbie.

“He must be lonely,” Stephanie says quietly with a small frown.

Ella nods, not making any comment.

The girls stare at Robbie sleeping peacefully.

“But we can change that, right? Maybe, when he comes to watch the talent show, he’ll start hanging out and playing with us more. Then he shouldn’t have to be lonely. Right?”

Ella nods at Stephanie with a smile. She glances at Robbie one more time before getting back to work with Stephanie.

Rottenella will bring Robbie and the residents of Lazy Town closer together if it’s the last thing she’ll ever do. She won’t allow Robbie being as lonely as he has been all these years. Robbie deserves better.


	10. Getting to know you

“I can’t believe I’m letting you do this,” Robbie whines as Rottenella drags him by the arm, walking swiftly towards the sports park. Robbie reluctantly follows her lead, dreading what’s to come.

As the pair arrives at the sports park, Robbie groans. He can see everyone waiting for them already.

Robbie isn’t sure why he agreed to do this. Rottenella wants him to spend more time with the townspeople, but is it really a good idea? They all hate him, and Robbie hates them. It makes no sense.

“Hi, Robbie!”

Robbie lets out a little whine as the kids run over to him, of course lead by Stephanie. Sportacus follows close behind, approaching Robbie carefully, while miss Busybody and the mayor come after them, smiling at Robbie.

“Do you wanna play with us, Robbie?” Ziggy asks with a big grin, looking over to Stephanie for encouragement.

“No.”

Rottenella and the other kids all chuckle at Robbie, shaking their heads.

“We don’t have to play sports if you don’t want to, Robbie,” Sportacus says with a smirk.

Robbie sneers at him.

“It’s true,” Pixel exclaims, “we can play whatever you want!”

“I want to play the let’s-go-home game.”

“Oh, come on, Robbie! We can play dress up if you want,” Stephanie suggests, trying to lure Robbie in.

She can see Robbie’s eyes light up, but the villain remains reluctant. All the other kids keep whining at Robbie, telling him to come play.

The mayor standing behind the kids clears his throat: “Mr Rotten, I believe we also have some ingredients for a cake. Your helping hand would be appreciated in the baking, considering that you are the cake expert of the town.”

Robbie tries to stop himself, but he then sees the big smile on Rottenella’s face.

“Ugh, alright then. Let’s go play dress up and bake some cakes!”

_____

The kids, along with Sportacus and Robbie, go through boxes upon boxes of clothes in Stephanie’s room, while miss Busybody and the mayor prepare for a baking session downstairs.

Stephanie’s boxes are filled with different clothes, accessories, and costumes, most of them pink. Ella and Robbie are actually surprised to see some things that are not pink.

Stingy tries hoarding everything he finds, but with Sportacus calmly talking to him, Stingy actually ends up sharing the things he finds. Stingy’s, of course, dressing up as a prince. Meanwhile Ziggy tries to put together a knight’s costume, Trixie gathers all the scarves she needs to become a ninja, and Pixel looks for a hat and a robe fitting for a wizard.

The costumes Stephanie has obviously won’t fit Robbie or Sportacus, so they’re both looking through the box of accessories. Robbie feels uncomfortable having to be so close to Sportacus, but he feels like he’ll manage. He’s already gone outside today, and he is socializing! If Robbie can do that, there is nothing he can’t do.

“What are you going to dress up as, Robbie?” Sportacus asks with a smile, trying to break the ice.

“It’s none of your business,” Robbie answers blandly, not even glancing at Sportacus. The hero seems disappointed, but lets the villain be.

“What about you, girls?”

Stephanie shows off the white jacket she managed to grab quickly before anyone else: “I’m gonna be a doctor! Doctors are really cool because they can save lives and they know lots of stuff!”

Robbie smiles to himself a little as he listens to Stephanie explain her costume. He thinks no one notices, but Rottenella does, and it makes her feel like she’s succeeding at her plan.

As Sportacus asks Ella what she’s dressing up as, she simply shrugs. She really has no clue. She looks over to Sportacus who’s putting together some sort of an elf costume.

Ella likes Sportacus. He’s weird, but he’s really nice and he’s always helping people. Ella likes helping people too. She loves that nice feeling that you get when you make someone happy. She loves helping, like Sportacus.

Then she gets it. She should be a superhero! Superheroes are always helping people, and on top of that, they’re cool and mysterious. It’s perfect for Rottenella.

After a short while of searching, Ella finds a perfect, striped cape and a mask decorated with glitter. She puts them on and automatically starts smiling - now she feels like a hero. Maybe someday when she’s older and more experienced, she could become an actual hero, like Sportacus. She really likes that idea. She’ll have to do that someday.

“I love your costume, Robbie!” Stephanie exclaims, waking Ella up from her thoughts. She looks over to Robbie who has dressed up as a vampire, and really well.

“Of course, pink girl, I’m the master of disguise! What else would you expect from me?”

Stephanie and the other kids giggle at Robbie’s response. Robbie tries to stop himself, but he grins once again, scolding himself in his head. But he still can’t stop smiling. Rottenella smirks at him and leans her head on his shoulder. In response, Robbie pets her hair and gives her a kiss on the top of her head, before they all go downstairs to bake a cake.

In the kitchen, everything is already set up, and so Stephanie starts giving orders. Ella and Stephanie work together with decorating the cake, while Stephanie leaves Robbie with Pixel to mix the batter.

“Alright, Picky, what do we need?”

Pixel looks down at the computer strapped to his wrist and starts listing all the ingredients. There’s already a pile of some ingredients in front of Robbie, and the rest he recites in his head to grab them later.

“I’ll get the vanilla and baking powder. Can you go and get the eggs and the milk from the fridge?” Pixel asks cheerily.

Robbie nods. Pixel responds with a simple, genuine smile before going to get baking powder and vanilla from the cupboard.

Robbie sighs as he holds a single egg above the mixing bowl: “This part always goes wrong for me…”

“Oh, I can take care of that!” Pixel chimes suddenly.

He takes the egg gently into his hands and pulls out some sort of an invention. Only with a press of a button, the egg cracks neatly, and the insides fall into the bowl, without a single tiny piece of the shell. Robbie’s eyes widen as he stares at the bowl and the egg. He then looks over to Pixel with a smile.

“You’re pretty smart, kid. I wouldn’t have thought of that myself.”

Pixel grins at the compliment: “Thanks! It’s one of the very few of my inventions that actually work…”

“Hey, that’s okay, kid. You just keep going at it, and you’ll succeed.”

Pixel goes on with mixing the batter with a smile, but Robbie stops in horror. Did he just say something nice? Did he just encourage that kid? Did he just tell someone not to give up? That is so not him.

As everyone teams up in putting the cake together, Robbie notices Ziggy doing something suspicious in the background. He’s climbing up onto a stool, trying to reach something. Robbie looks up and notices that he’s trying to grab a lollipop on the highest shelf. It was put there by Stingy and Trixie, partly because it was annoying Stingy, partly because Trixie likes to tease Ziggy, and partly because everyone agreed that it would be a good idea to put it away while baking, so it wouldn’t distract Ziggy.

Robbie walks up to Ziggy and grabs the lollipop. With a moment of hesitation, he hands it to the little boy on the stool. A wide smile spreads across Ziggy’s face, but before he can say anything, Robbie puts his finger to his lips and shushes him quietly. He glances over to the others who haven’t noticed a thing, and the grins at Ziggy.

What’s making Robbie act so nice?

“You are not putting strawberries on the cake!”

“Oh, come on, Robbie! No cake is complete without some sportscandy. They’re good for you.”

Robbie fakes a little gag: “Ugh. What did you just say? The whole point of a cake is not having to eat sportscandy.”

Stephanie rolls her eyes: “Robbie, trust me. Strawberries are really sweet. It’s almost like candy!”

“No!”

“There’ll be a lot of sugar in the cake anyway. And if you don’t like the strawberries, you can just pick them out. We won’t put much.”

Robbie mopes, but Ella tells Stephanie to put the strawberries in. She shakes her head at Robbie affectionately, and Robbie tries to hide his own affection, but fails.

The whole group sits down at the table. Robbie sits beside Ella to have a bit of comfort while surrounded by all these sort of strangers, and on Robbie’s right side, sits Trixie.

“Oh my, would you look at that. We’ve got all the troublemakers sitting next to each other. Let’s not make a show this time, alright?” the mayor jokes, receiving a couple of laughs from the others. Robbie looks at the girls beside him and notices Trixie grinning at him.

“I’m not really in the mood now, but… Maybe we could team up sometime. For some real good tricks and pranks,” Trixie whispers at Robbie.

The villain nods hesitantly. He has to admit that he has always admired Trixie’s determination and mischievous spirit. “We’ll do that some time.”

Even though Sportacus himself settles for some leftover strawberries, he cuts the cake and gives everyone a perfectly divided piece. The slices are too small for Robbie’s tastes, but he stays quiet, since he promised Ella he’d be nice.

“So, Robbie,” Bessie begins, sounding as fancy as usual, “how are you liking the cake?”

Robbie shrugs and nods his head: “It’s good.”

Ella kicks his ankle under the table.

“Uh, thank you.”

Stephanie giggles with Ella a little bit and then turns to Robbie: “You know, Robbie, I’ve been wondering, what’s your favourite type of cake?”

Robbie is taken aback by the question. “Red velvet or chocolate,” he blurts out. He’s not used to casual conversation, and this is too much for one day. Robbie very rarely gets any attempts at chatting with anyone when he’s out of disguise.

Everyone - apart from Ella who spends the time doodling - eats their pieces of cake, some of them taking more, and then there’s only one slice left. After a long awkward moment, both Robbie and Stingy reach for the cake.

They stare at each other for a moment before trying to again grab the cake at the same time. Stingy is just about to claim that the cake is his, but Stephanie glares at him before he can utter a word, while Ella looks at Robbie expectantly.

“How about… we share it?” Robbie asks with a sigh.

Stingy is horrified by the suggestion, but then after receiving a couple of strange looks and a hint of a nervous smile from Robbie, he agrees.

“Alright then. But if the pieces turn out different sizes, I’ll get the bigger one.”

“Sure thing, kiddo,” Robbie says rolling his eyes, but suddenly concentrating a lot more on cutting the halves to be the same size. Stingy and Robbie have more in common than either of them would like to admit.

As it gets late, everyone prepares to leave. Ella says farewell to her friends while Robbie waits by the door, slightly annoyed, but happy that Ella is getting along with everyone.

“I’m really happy you came, Robbie,” Sportacus says suddenly, making Robbie jump.

“Oh well, she forced me. It’s not like I wanted to,” Robbie mumbles.

“But you did come after all. I think it’s nice to see you spend time with us more. And I’m especially happy to see you get along with the kids.”

“What? I’m not getting along with those brats, what are you talking about?”

Sportacus smiles and shakes his head: “Whatever you say, Robbie. I’m just glad to see you here.”

“Whatever. Now go away, before I remember that I’m supposed to get you out of town again.”

Ella skips back over to Robbie with a smile, saying she’s ready to go. As Robbie opens the door, everyone suddenly exclaims goodbyes, and Robbie is more than happy to leave those noisy people.

Robbie and Ella walk side by side, heading towards the lair. It’s already starting to get dark and there’s a cold breeze. It luckily doesn’t affect Ella, since she’s a doll, but if she could sense the cold, she’d be freezing in her short sleeved, thin dress.

Ella taps Robbie on the shoulder and asks him: “How did you like it?”

“Like what?”

“Spending time with the others.”

“It… It was alright I suppose.”

Ella smirks to herself. She’s happy with herself and how she got Robbie to go hang out with the others. She’ll have him befriend all of them in no time.

The pair walks in silence for a while longer. Ella then taps Robbie’s shoulder again to get his attention.

“You liked the strawberry, didn’t you?”

Robbie stays quiet.

“You did.”

Robbie rolls his eyes: “Maybe a little bit…”

Ella giggles and punches Robbie gently, making him chuckle as well. He sighs and looks affectionately at his little dancing queen.

“Rottenella?”

She turns her head to look at Robbie.

“Ella…”

Ella stares expectantly at the villain, while he breathes in and out, in and out, in and out. He actually isn’t sure why he said the girl’s name or what he was going to say. He turns his gaze to the young girl and smiles.

“You’re a good kid, Ella.”

Ella smiles and grabs Robbie’s hand, pressing her cheek against his arm. Robbie smiles and kisses her hair in return, as they walk home together.

As a family, they both would like to say.


	11. Getting ready

“I’ll have to go now. I promised uncle Milford that I’d be home soon.”

Stephanie gives Ella quick hug and then turns to smile at the villain in the corner of the lair.

“Thanks again, Robbie!” she exclaims, clutching her new dancing costume to her chest.

“You’re welcome or whatever…”

Ella and Stephanie smile, and with a quick wave, Stephanie rushes back home.

Ella continues practising by herself. She can’t believe the talent show is already tomorrow, but she’s sure her and Stephanie’s dance will go just fine. There’s just one thing she can’t help but worry about.

Ella skips over to Robbie to tap him on the shoulder. She then asks: “You are coming tomorrow, right?”

Robbie gives her a faint smile: “Of course I’m coming. I promised already, didn’t I?”

Ella purses her lips, hesitating. “But do you want to come? Are you worried about all the other townspeople being there?”

“Nah, they’re alright I guess. They shouldn’t be annoying me when they’re watching the show anyway.”

Ella grins to herself. She really might’ve succeeded. It won’t be long before Robbie will befriend Sportacus, and then Robbie can really be happy. He doesn’t have to be alone anymore. If Ella could cry, she’d probably tear up at the thought.

“And I wouldn’t miss your dance for the world,” Robbie adds, taking Ella into his arms.

The mechanical girl hugs him back and nods to herself. She’d definitely be tearing up now if she could. Maybe she’s glad that she can’t.


	12. Show time

Stephanie stretches backstage, while the other kids jump around, excited for the show. The theater has been decorated with shiny cardboard stars and colourful paper flowers, but the backstage remains barren and dark, building up the kids’ excitement as well as their nervousness.

Rottenella appears through the curtains, immediately greeted by the kids. She walks straight over to Stephanie with a grin, but doesn’t say a word - Stephanie still hasn’t gotten the hang of sign language. But Ella doesn’t blame her.

“Are you ready for the show?” Stephanie asks with a smile. She is genuinely happy, but Ella notices she’s also very nervous.

Ella nods in response and sits down on a table next to Stephanie. She swings her feet in the air, looking around herself. Stingy is polishing his saxophone, while next to him, Ziggy is organizing cards with lots of text on them. Meanwhile, Trixie and Pixel are in the corner together, working on something with a laptop and also stretching just like Stephanie. Everyone seems to be busy, except for Ella.

Ella walks over to a mirror to check if she’s ready for the stage. She’s not used to having her hair down and loose, but as she runs her fingers through the black, shiny lock of hair, she deems it’s fun to let it flow free for a while. Her bangs also look more like they’re really framing her face now.

Ella tries to get her dress more into shape and looks at it from different angles. She thinks Robbie really did a good job. Stephanie’s and Ella’s dresses match in style and shape, and they’re very simple by themselves, but they get a lot more personality and differ from each other when added the small different details, like how the ribbon going around Stephanie’s waist has a flower on it, but Ella’s has a bow. They both also have shoes and gloves that make the outfits differ from each other, while also representing their personalities. Even their headbands are slightly different.

And of course Stephanie is wearing pink, while Ella is wearing purple, but that’s a given.

Ella walks back over to Stephanie to suggest some last minute practising. Once the message has gone through, Stephanie nods and jumps up, starting to count aloud and dance with Ella.

On the other side of the curtain, Robbie is silently complaining to himself. Of course, he was placed to sit beside Sportacus. They just can’t give him a break.

To Robbie’s luck, Sportacus doesn’t start up a conversation. He just smiles at Robbie and greets him, but leaves it there.

Robbie sits nervously, fiddling with his sleeves and staring at the curtain, waiting for it to move - but it doesn’t.

Robbie starts thinking about the costumes he did for the girls. Hopefully they’re alright. Hopefully they’ll look fine in the spotlight. Hopefully they’ll work for moving and dancing.

Robbie groans to himself and throws his head back. Sportacus looks at him with furrowed brows.

“Are you okay, Robbie?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, you Sportaflap!”

Sportacus sighs. He stays quiet for a moment before turning to look at Robbie with a smile.

“I’m sure the show’ll go great. The girls have practised a lot, and the costumes you made are amazing.”

Robbie rolls his eyes and doesn’t respond.

“I’m glad you’re here, Robbie. I’m glad Ella brought you here.”

“I’m glad she brought me here too.”

Robbie’s eyes widen and he throws his hand over his mouth in shock. He did not just say that. He did not.

While Robbie tries to pretend nothing happened, Sportacus chuckles to himself, but he doesn’t bother Robbie about it. He just sits back and waits for the show to start.

Robbie keeps on squirming for a while before the lights get turned off slowly, and the spotlight on the stage gets turned on.

The first kid on the stage is Ziggy. He shuffles onto the stage awkwardly, carrying cards with him. He clears his throat and gets the microphone from the side of the stage. Next, comes a couple of minutes of horrible jokes only a kid could come up with. But Robbie does find himself chuckling at a couple of them. It’s not too bad really. They’re funny enough, and as Ziggy gains his confidence and gets excited by telling the jokes, he does end up being rather adorable.

Next comes Stingy to play his saxophone, quite well actually. Pretty good for a kid his age. He of course stays on the stage as long as possible to get more applauds, until the other kids order him to get backstage.

Pixel and Trixie really surprise the audience, walking onto stage together with a laptop. Turns out they have mixed their own song together, and they take turns staying by the laptop to mix some more and going to the front of the stage to perform. Pixel apparently does breakdancing, which Robbie definitely wasn’t aware of, and Trixie does stunts and tricks she clearly learned from Sportacus. Despite Robbie hating all of the flipity-flopityness, he finds it impressive.

Once Trixie and Pixel have given a bow and disappeared back behind the curtains, Rottenella and Stephanie step out, holding hands. Their matching outfits glitter perfectly in the spotlight, and they nod at each other before taking their places, Stephanie sitting at the edge of the stage, and Ella lying on the stage further back.

With the first note, Stephanie starts flailing around on stage to the rhythm, slowly getting up from the ground. Robbie never got to thinking about how talented Stephanie actually is. She’s been dancing all her life after all. Robbie isn’t sure if all of the movement is choreographed or just improvised, but either way, it looks good and smooth.

When Stephanie pulls Ella up onto her feet, she starts dancing as well, and it can be seen that as well as their costumes, their dancing is matching, but very different from each other. Rottenella’s movement is much more exact and precise. She knows exactly what she’s doing right now, she knows exactly what she’s going to do next. Quite the opposite of what she acts like in life. Actually, Stephanie’s personality seems to be quite the opposite of her own dancing as well.

Ella and Stephanie dance together with the same moves for a moment before once again parting their ways, taking turns at the centre of the stage, and doing completely different things while still being one, both being a part of the other one’s dancing.

The girls lock eyes right before Stephanie runs up to Ella, and the doll lifts her up, spinning in one place, while Stephanie continues moving up in the air. Stephanie breathes heavily, but smiles, while Ella keeps a straight face, concentrated on not dropping her friend or falling over herself.

As Ella puts Stephanie back down, they both do a couple of pirouettes, slowly moving away from each other. Robbie is disgusted by how they can’t just stop moving and take a break, but on the other hand, it looks beautiful. He can’t deny that.

Once Stephanie dips Ella, there’s a sudden stop and the music continues quieter. The dancing girls smile at each other as Stephanie carefully lowers Ella to lie on the floor, and Stephanie herself goes off to dance on her own again.

Ella can see how heavily Stephanie is breathing and how she’s sweating, but she won’t show it to the audience as she dances smoothly as ever, remaining calm and graceful.

Rottenella believes this is her favourite part of the dance. She likes watching Stephanie dance this part. It’s a really difficult one with complicated moves, which have to be done very, very slowly.

There’s something that really fascinates Rottenella about this part. There’s something… humane about it. The way Stephanie dances with passion but remains calm, and the way she wordlessly expresses so many emotions. For Rottenella, that’s what humanity is about. She wonders if she is capable of such level of humanity.

Stephanie slowly falls down to the ground, taking her place, lying at the edge of the stage. Once the music has completely stopped, and neither of the girls are moving, they get a big round of applauds, most of them from Robbie, who’s standing up and smiling brighter than ever before. He couldn’t be more proud of his little dancing queen.

Once the entirety of the talent show is over, the kids get even more praise, and they all talk about their experiences on the stage excitedly. Rottenella, however, runs straight over to Robbie, giving him a big hug. Robbie showers his little girl with compliments, praise, and love. He keeps telling her how perfect she was and how proud he is.

Ella responds by telling Robbie she’s proud of him too.

Robbie might’ve gotten something in his eye that night.


	13. Too much

Ella frowns at Robbie, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I’m telling you, Rottenella, I am not going!”

“But it’s been weeks since you went outside. You need the sun, the fresh air. You definitely need to socialize.”

Ella tries dragging Robbie out of his chair, but she’s too weak to move him even an inch.

“I went to the talent show! I don’t need to go to any dumb party,” Robbie mumbles, refusing to look at the doll frowning at him in the eyes.

“The talent show was last month! You were doing really good, almost made friends with everyone. If you went to this party, you could actually become proper friends with all of them.”

Robbie rolls his eyes but doesn’t raise his voice.

“They don’t care about me. They don’t need me to be their friend. I’m the grumpy old villain of the town, I always have been, and always will be. And I’m fine with that.”

“They do care about you. You’ve just forgotten because you refuse to go outside to see them.”

Robbie shakes his head. Ella has had enough

“Look at me.”

“I am looking at you. If I wasn’t, I couldn’t see what you’re saying.”

Ella stomps her foot on the ground: “No. Look at me in the eyes.”

Robbie slowly raises his gaze to look at the girl. If she was completely human, she’d be near to tears right now. Luckily for Robbie, she doesn’t have the ability to do that. Robbie couldn’t stand seeing her cry.

“Maybe it’s true, maybe they don’t need you. I understand that I will never get you to understand how much you need them. But for goodness’ sake, you should at least know that I need this. I need to know that you’re not sad and alone. I need you to be happy. And you can’t get there alone. But I’m not enough for that. I’m not even human. So maybe you think you don’t need them to be your friends, but you should know that I need them to be your friends.”

Robbie bites his lip and takes a deep breath. Turns out she doesn’t need actual physical tears to break Robbie down.

“Ella… I’m…”

He shakes his head and swallows whatever words he was about to say.

Ella stomps her foot on the ground once more.

“If you’re not going to the party, I’m telling the party to come to you.”

She walks towards the exit with heavy steps and starts climbing up the ladder.

“Ella, wait!”

She continues climbing but slows down. Robbie sighs, between a thought, and tries to think of something to convince Ella to come back down.

“Ella, I’m really sorry. I know I tend to be a little…”

Robbie is interrupted by a loud clanging sound, and then a quieter one.

He looks up to see Rottenella, holding onto the ladder with tights fists, not climbing up anymore. She has slid down a couple of steps and looks scared.

There’s another clang, but Ella hasn’t moved. The sound isn’t the ladder clanging.

“Ella?”

The girl turns to look at Robbie. There’s fear in her eyes. She wishes she could say something. Ask for help. Scream. But as always, there’s nothing.

There’s a quiet sound of cogs turning, followed by yet another clang.

“Ella!”

The next clang is accompanied by a thud, as the ballerina falls to the floor.

Then there are sobs and cries.

Dolls weren’t built for emotions.


	14. Wrong

“Is she gonna be okay?”

“What happened?”

“Why is she sick?”

“Can Robbie fix her?”

Robbie hears the sound of the children above his lair, but he doesn’t complain. He doesn’t make up a plan to shut the kids up, or to get Sportacus out of town, or to make everyone lazy. He stares at the girl with black hair and closed eyes, lying on his table with screws and cogs lying around her.

It feels so wrong. She should be playing and dancing like a kid, not lying on the cold table like a piece of machinery. Or maybe she should be. She’s not human. She’s not an animal either. She’s a robot.

No. Robbie doesn’t believe that.

She shouldn’t be lying on the cold table like a piece of machinery. She should be lying in Robbie’s arms. With that beautiful smile on her face.

The lair is suddenly so quiet. The sounds of Rottenella’s footsteps, the sound of pages turning, the music, they’re all gone. It’s all so wrong.

Robbie groans as he hears Sportacus coming down the ladder.

Robbie hates that ladder.

“Hey,” Sportacus says with a smile. But it’s not like his usual, annoying and energetic smile. Now it’s with empathy and a pinch of sadness.

“Are you doing okay?”

The dumb elf is caring way too much. He shouldn’t care. None of them should care.

Robbie shrugs, still staring at the little girl on his table.

“The mayor and I made you muffins. You said your favourite was red velvet or chocolate, so we made both.”

Sportacus puts a basket of muffins down on Robbie’s kitchen table. Robbie takes a glance and sees little slices of strawberry on top of each muffin. He grins at the ballerina on his table, as if she could see him.

“Robbie.”

The villain turns around to face Sportacus.

“The kids are having a movie night later this evening. We’d hate it if you had to be alone, especially during this time, so we thought you could join us.”

Robbie swallows hard and glances at the doll. He turns back to Sportacus and nods.

“Sounds like fun.”

Sportacus smiles wide: “Great. See you there, Robbie.”

“See ya…”

With slight hesitation, the superhero leaves Robbie be, and climbs back out of the lair.

Robbie only gets to take a couple of deep breaths before he hears steps coming down the ladder again.

A girl with pink hair and a pink dress approaches Robbie, staring at the lifeless Ella.

Stephanie doesn’t say anything for a long time, only staring at her friend. Robbie can’t imagine how hard something like this can be on a kid.

“What happened to her?”

Robbie breathes in and out loudly.

“Dolls weren’t built for emotions.”

Stephanie only nods. She’s a smart kid.

“You can fix her, right?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. It’ll take a bit of time, but she’ll be alright.”

Stephanie sits down next to Robbie, not taking her eyes off Rottenella.

The girl hesitates for a moment, glancing at Robbie. She sighs.

“You do know that she really cares about you, right? You mean a whole lot to her.”

Robbie nods: “So it seems.”

Stephanie seems incredibly calm through all of this. She’s always seemed much more mature than her peers. But Robbie doesn’t consider it a perk or a sign of adulthood. Crying is an amazing gift. Robbie and Stephanie are lucky to own the ability to do that. If only Robbie had used it more in the past.

“You mean a whole lot to us too.”

Robbie turns his head to Stephanie in surprise.

“It might not seem like it sometimes. But you’re important to us. We care about you.”

Stephanie looks down, hiding most of her face with her bright pink hair: “I really used to think of you as just a villain. I was really confused about why Ella was so keen on you and why she wanted to help you so badly. But she opened my eyes. You’re not really a bad guy. At least not as bad as you think.”

Robbie looks down at the ground, reflecting on every word Stephanie is saying.

“Ella gave you a chance. Thanks to her, I did so too. Then I told the others to do that too. Now… you need to give yourself a chance.” 

Stephanie pauses.

“You wanna know the truth? You’re the last one, Robbie.”

Stephanie gets up and walks back over to the ladder.

“You’re the last one to think Robbie Rotten is a bad guy.”

The girl leaves, saying no more.

Robbie shakes his head, petting Rottenella’s hair, pretending she’s just asleep.

“Let’s see.”

He lays a kiss on her forehead.

“Maybe once you wake up, there will be none left.”


	15. Built to live

“Hey, baby girl…”

The silver eyes open for the first time in an agonizingly long forever.

Robbie’s hair is a mess, the circles under his eyes large and dark. He hasn’t slept in days.

But there’s a smile on his face. A smile not comparable to any smile Ella has ever seen.

He hasn’t slept in days. But he was willing to sacrifice that for this moment.

Rottenella sits up on the table, her movements stiff and clumsy. She hasn’t moved in a long, long time.

She looks at Robbie in amazement. There’s something different about him since last she was awake. His smile is different. His eyes glitter differently.

Ella tries to sign with her clumsy, stiff hands: “What has happened?”

Robbie shakes his head with teary eyes. There are so many things he wants to say.

“I’ve missed you so much.”

Ella looks confused. Robbie smiles, tears finally escaping his eyes.

“But it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, Ella. Thanks to you.”

The girl slowly rests her hand on his shoulder.

“Ella… I’m not alone. Not anymore.”

The girl lets out a silent gasp and notices something wet on her cheek.

She wipes the tear off her face, staring at the droplet now on her finger.

Tear.

She throws herself onto Robbie, hugging him tightly, letting out silent sobs.

Dolls weren’t built for emotions.

But as far as Robbie is concerned, humanity doesn’t depend on whether you have blood and organs or springs and cogs.

It’s about living.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading Built To Live!
> 
> It means a lot to me that you took the time to read and experience this work that took me such a long time to make. During that time (almost a year) I managed to drift away from the fandom this was for, but I had to finish it, so here it is in all its glory.
> 
> Thank you again so much, please leave a comment to let me know what you think, and if you really liked it, feel free to recommend it to a friend. It would mean a lot.
> 
> Thank you!


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